Brian Calle: Not Clinton's party anymore

Former President Bill Clinton, left, bows as President Barack Obama, right, walks on stage after Clinton's address to the Democratic National Convention. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

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Former President Bill Clinton, left, bows as President Barack Obama, right, walks on stage after Clinton's address to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Former President Bill Clinton, left, bows as President Barack Obama, right, walks on stage after Clinton's address to the Democratic National Convention. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

Charlotte, N.C – . Events at the Democratic National Convention illustrated the party's shift in recent years to the political left. Even former President Bill Clinton, in the minds of many the archetype of the centrist Democrat, used his lengthy speech – widely hailed as the highlight of the convention – to tout policies advanced by his party's current standard bearer, President Barack Obama, policies Clinton would not have pursued during his two terms.

The appeal of Bill Clinton – and, undoubtedly the reason he was tapped for the primetime, keynote address Wednesday night – is his perceived popularity, crossover appeal and, particularly, his credibility on economic matters and the bipartisanship associated with his administration. Clinton, strategists hope, helps to sell an Obama reelection to undecided voters worried about the current president's handling of the economy and the partisan rancor for which he shares responsibility.

It's ironic, though, because Barack Obama's Democratic Party bears faint resemblance to Bill Clinton's. President Obama has helped to shape a far more progressive agenda – particularly on economics – and presides over a far more leftward Democratic Party, which also controls the Senate.

As Peter Boyer wrote for a cover story in Newsweek, "Conservative and centrist Democrats, so critical to Clinton's efforts to reform welfare, balance the budget and erase the image of the party as being reflexively anti-business, have nearly vanished."

But, running for reelection, President Obama needs to appear moderate, unifying, economically pragmatic and strong on defense. Putting such a spotlight on Obama's endorsement by Clinton, a man still popular among Democrats, independents and even some Republicans, may serve that purpose. Recall that the president came onstage to embrace Clinton after his speech, something Obama did with no other speaker, including his wife, Michelle.

"Obama knows that he needs Clinton to lift a convention that many Democrats are pointedly avoiding, and to help rescue an imperiled reelection bid that will be nothing like the relatively easy ride that Clinton enjoyed in 1996," Boyer wrote.

Instead of moving closer to the center and pushing policies more closely aligned with his Democratic predecessor, Obama has opted for what amounts to a photo op with Clinton, hoping that will conjure the perception that the 44th president is much like the 42nd. Reality is far different. President Obama has not budged from his agenda, except to extend temporarily all the Bush-era tax cuts.

Now, however, he has refused to allow those cuts to be extended again, or be made permanent, despite the Congressional Budget Office warning that not doing so would run the nation off a fiscal cliff of tax increases and automatic spending cuts Jan. 1.

It's that stubbornness that differentiates him from the more political mobile and maneuverable Clinton.

Today, the Democratic Party would benefit itself and, more importantly, the country, by reverting to the more centrist policies that were a hallmark of the 1990s and the Clinton presidency. President Obama had the opportune moment to lead the party in that direction after the 2010 midterm-election debacle that saw the party lose control of the House of Representatives.

President Obama's decision not to pivot two years ago could fairly be viewed as a principled stance; he, as many have argued, is a true believer in his progressive ideology. On the other hand, in that moment, pragmatism may have helped mitigate some of the economic malaise still faced by his fellow Americans, end some of the rancor in Washington and ease brewing tensions stoked by his ongoing us-versus-them rhetoric.

In some ways, Obama is a bolder president than Clinton and deserves credit for some of the principled stances he has taken. He commendably ended the military policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and pushed for the DREAM Act.

Even so, on the biggest issues of the day – unemployment, the national debt and the lackluster economy – President Obama has abandoned a Clintonian model for governance. As Bill Clinton goes out on the campaign trail to stump for President Obama, he undoubtedly will offer an eloquent defense of the current presidency and liken Obama's to his own. Remember, however, that it was Bill Clinton, in his 1996 State of the Union address, who famously pronounced, "The era of big government is over" and fostered a new wave of centrist Democrats. That is vastly different from the past nearly four years of President Obama.

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